Jiang Zhonglin put down the half-washed rice in his hand, turned around and looked at Yu Yao, and said, “It’s true, I’m very happy.”
Yu Yao: “Then why can’t I see it?”
Jiang Zhonglin understood what she meant and answered helplessly, “Maybe it’s because I’m already old, an old man. I’ve seen a lot of things, so I’m more stable than young people.”
Yu Yao was determined to find out what the old man in front of him was thinking. Standing at the door and confronting him, she asked aggressively, “Then do you still like me?”
Jiang Zhonglin is a very introverted person. Perhaps because of his family education and environment, he has been shy to say words like "like" or "love" since he was a child.
Yu Yao still remembers that before they got married, they went out on a date, and she jokingly asked him if he liked her. Jiang Zhonglin didn’t say anything for a long time, even though his eyes and actions were chasing her all the time, and the love in him couldn’t be hidden; he still couldn’t answer a word of love. She asked this question in the morning, but Jiang Zhonglin didn’t answer. He hesitated and fidgeted all day. When they parted in the evening, Jiang Zhonglin suddenly said that he liked her, which made her inexplicably unable to react. When she got home and thought about it, she realized that he answered the question a few hours ago in a subtle way... like a mimosa.
He was such an introverted man when he was young, and he became an even more introverted and steady old man when he was old. Faced with Yu Yao’s questioning, Teacher Jiang was really unable to resist. He stood in front of the pool for a long time without saying a word.
Yu Yao walked towards him. “Didn’t you wait for me for so long? Now that I’m back, don’t you have anything to say to me?”
In fact, Jiang Zhonglin didn’t wait deliberately, but he just couldn’t forget Yu Yao. When he came to his senses, he found that so many years had passed.
Jiang Zhonglin looked down and saw his hands. The loose skin of his hands put this sentence back in his heart.
Seeing that he didn’t speak, Yu Yao was furious and stepped forward to grab Jiang Zhonglin’s hand. Teacher Jiang was startled and subconsciously retracted his hand. Yu Yao yelled at him, “What are you doing! Can’t I touch my own husband?!”
Teacher Jiang thought for a moment that if he were ten years younger, Yu Yao would definitely not talk to him nicely now but would just kick him. Thinking of this, he didn’t know whether he should laugh.
“You can touch it.” He handed his hand back generously and said calmly, “But it’s not as pretty as when I was young, and my skin is wrinkled.”
Yu Yao held his hand and touched his face with the other hand. Jiang Zhonglin was not used to this kind of contact and subconsciously turned his head back again.
Yu Yao’s anger, which had finally been extinguished, came out again, and she continued to yell, “Why are you hiding!”
Teacher Jiang turned his head back silently. He lowered his eyes and looked at his wife, whose face had not changed in forty years, and felt the cool touch on his face. He was in a trance for a moment.
He remembered a fragment. After they got married, they took turns cooking. Generally, whoever had time would cook, and the cooking skills of both of them were almost acceptable. And when both of them were free, he was mostly the one cooking, because at this time Yu Yao would stay in the living room to play games. He doesn’t like onions, but Yu Yao does. The first time he bought onions, he didn’t know the huge power of onions when he cut them. He chopped so many onions that his tears fell. He couldn’t see clearly with his glasses, so he couldn’t wipe them with his hands. He had to raise his arm to wipe them. His glasses were almost wiped off.
As a newlywed couple, he was embarrassed to call Yu Yao in the living room to help. But at this time, Yu Yao, who was supposed to be playing games in the living room, appeared at the kitchen door. She took a look at his embarrassed look and said, “You must have not paid attention to how strong the onion's smell is. Nerds are nerds. They don’t have any life experience.”
As she said, she came over to wipe the tears from his face. The feeling of her fingers touching his face was like this.
It was as if time had gone back, as if the old scene was reappearing. He was still the young man who wanted to please his wife with his cooking skills. He was embarrassed by an onion, but when he lowered his head slightly and let his wife’s fingers touch his cheek, his heart was pounding.
Yu Yao’s fingers touched the white hair on Jiang Zhonglin’s temples. His hair seemed to have turned white earlier than others. Xu Xian, the old man in Yang Yun’s family, was a few years older than him, but he didn’t have as many white hairs as him.
Yu Yao felt a little sore in her heart. She put down her hand, but her other hand was still holding Jiang Zhonglin’s hand.
She suddenly looked at Jiang Zhonglin’s eyes seriously and asked him, “When I decided to marry you, Yang Yun was not very optimistic because you were three years younger than me and my father didn’t agree, but I still insisted on marrying you. Do you know why?”
Teacher Jiang, who had experienced ups and downs, was pulled by his young wife for a long time. He had quickly adapted to it and was able to take it easy.
He replied tactfully, “I thought it was because my father-in-law didn’t agree that you...” Yu Yao was blocked by him and choked a little. She got along badly with her father and was indeed happy to oppose him everywhere, but she was unhappy when Jiang Zhonglin said this about this issue. So she pinched Teacher Jiang’s hand very disrespectfully.
Although there was this reason, but—“It’s not the main reason.” Yu Yao pulled the corner of her mouth and brought the topic back.
Teacher Jiang sighed inwardly and was very tolerant of the young people’s anger. “I was wrong back then.”
Yu Yao said, “I’m marrying you because you like me.” In her more than 20 years of life, she has liked many things but never liked herself. She often feels that she has problems all over her body and there is nothing to like about her. So when she met Jiang Zhonglin and found out about his feelings for her, she was surprised and curious. She was curious about how long he could like her, so she agreed to marry him.
“Do you know what I mean by this?”
“...”
“What I mean is, if you don’t like me now, I will move out as soon as possible so that you don’t feel uncomfortable facing me.” If he doesn’t want to keep her now, she will really leave immediately.
Jiang Zhonglin moved the fingers held by Yu Yao. After a long while, he said, “Stay.”
“Okay.” Yu Yao smiled, “You should have said it earlier. You can’t get anything out of it.”
After she finished speaking, she crossed her arms and walked out. When she reached the kitchen door, she turned her head and said, “Now, I think old men are cute. They don’t feel weird to touch.”
After she left, Teacher Jiang turned around and continued to wash the rice. After washing it twice, he suddenly realized that he was verbally teased by Yu Yao just now.
Alas, young people. Teacher Jiang has taught so many students in his life and has encountered all kinds of difficult young people, but this is the only one he can’t handle. He was bullied by the young woman at this age; he couldn’t help but laugh.
Yu Yao is a very gentle person. Her gentleness is different from his, hidden under her casual behavior. What she said and did just now was just to express one meaning—"Let me be by your side".
Not everyone can accept a lover who suddenly grows old without any scruples. She just told him clearly that she accepted it.
It was so simple that it was a bit impulsive. But young people are like this. When they have love in their hearts, they can do anything for it.
Two days ago, he received that call. The young staff member told him that his wife had been found. For a moment, Jiang Zhonglin felt that he had misheard. He couldn’t understand what the person on the other end of the phone was saying. The teacup in his hand fell to the ground, and the water splashed on his shoes. He couldn’t help asking, “Did you just say...”
The staff on the other end of the phone repeated it. When he heard the words "Your wife, Yu Yao, is back", he couldn’t hear the rest of the words clearly and had to ask again. He had never found a sentence so difficult to understand. He could understand every word, but he didn’t understand the meaning.
He had thought about it thousands of times, but it never came true. When he gave up, it suddenly came. He sat down slowly in his wet slippers, listening to the voice on the other end of the phone.
“... Okay, then please come and pick up Ms. Yu as soon as possible. We will send you electronic information about the specific procedures...”
After he put down the phone, he sat there for a while before he felt the cold and wet touch on his feet. He got up to change his clothes. When he passed by the mirror, he couldn’t help but stop and look at himself. Looking at the old man in the mirror, Jiang Zhonglin thought to himself, how could she accept this old man with white hair?
He felt the sadness in the phrase "homesickness", but he still hurried to pick him up.
Before pushing open the door of the service center, he was still thinking, what if Yu Yao couldn’t accept it? Then he thought, there was nothing he could do if he couldn’t accept it. He was old, so what else could he do? At that moment, he had made all the preparations, ready to accept all of Yu Yao’s choices and reactions.
But when he opened the door and saw Yu Yao sitting there, he forgot all these things, took her home, and saw her lying on the sofa at home. His disordered heart had begun to calm down since he received the call.
In any case, Yu Yao was alive and well and did not suffer any hardship he had imagined. This was good.
He let go of a heavy burden that had been weighing on his mind for forty years.
His "heavy burden" was playing games outside at this moment, and the sound effects of swishing came into the kitchen, which was very rhythmic and lively.
The four words "heavy burden", without the heaviness, only the burden was left, still lingering in his heart, and he couldn’t let it go.
Jiang Zhonglin washed his hands and took out the onions to cut.
Yu Yao smelled the onion keenly in the living room. She jumped up, walked quietly to the kitchen door, and looked inside. She tiptoed twice and saw that old man Jiang turned his head and showed the goggles he was wearing.
Awesome, he was wearing goggles when cutting onions. Yu Yao quietly crumpled the tissue into a ball in her hand and returned to the living room as if nothing had happened. She threw the ball into the trash can, right in the middle.
“Am I still sleeping upstairs?” Yu Yao asked during dinner.
“Yes.” Teacher Jiang said, as if she didn’t understand what she meant.
“...Do people become stubborn old men when they get old?” Yu Yao threw her slippers under the table to Jiang Zhonglin.
Teacher Jiang glanced at the slippers that fell to his feet. The newly bought plush, grass-green slippers turned over. He swallowed the food in his mouth and answered good-temperedly, “Yes.”
Yu Yao scooped a large spoonful of onions for the stubborn old man opposite.
*****
What should I do if my lover became an old man after traveling to fourty years later? Chapter List:
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